- 15 - The estate is not attempting to alter the unambiguous terms of the marital settlement and thus avoid the tax consequences which flow from it. Rather, the estate introduced the testimony of three witnesses with personal knowledge of the marital settlement in order to show that the parties intended the guaranty obligation of Mr. Hoffman to be personal to decedent only and to terminate upon the death of either party. For purposes of this case, the relevant inquiry is whether, under the terms of the marital settlement, the guaranty obligation of Mr. Hoffman terminated on the death of decedent. Mr. Hoffman testified that the guaranteed payments were tied to alimony and that he did not intend for the guaranty obligation to survive decedent’s death. He stated that the guaranty provision was inserted into the marital settlement because he did not have enough cash up front to pay the amount of alimony that decedent wanted; thus, the parties to the marital settlement negotiated lower monthly alimony payments in the initial years after the divorce in return for larger payments of cash in future years. Mr. Hoffman testified that on the date the final guaranteed payment was due, decedent would presumably have been able to sell the SCC and WLI stock and liquidate her holdings, thereby meeting her financial needs. Mr. Hoffman testified that he had not made any payments pursuant to the guaranty obligation because he believed the guaranty obligation ceased at decedent’sPage: Previous 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Next
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